Earl LeRoy "Buddy" Carter (born September 6, 1957) is an American politician serving as the U.S. representative for Georgia's 1st congressional district since 2015. The district is based in Savannah and includes most of the state's coastal southern portion. A member of the Republican Party, Carter was elected to Congress after Jack Kingston decided to run for Senate.

Carter announced in May 2025 that he would not seek re-election to the House in 2026, instead seeking the Republican nomination for Senate, to challenge Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff.

Carter graduated in 1975 from Robert W. Groves High School in Garden City, Georgia. He earned an associate degree from Young Harris College in 1977 and a Bachelor of Science in pharmacy from the University of Georgia in 1980.

Carter served on the planning and zoning commission for the city of Pooler from 1989 to 1993 and on Pooler's city council from 1994 to 1995. He served as Pooler's mayor from 1996 to 2004.

Carter served as a Georgia state representative (2005–2009) and Georgia state senator (2009–2014). He sat on the Senate Appropriations, Health and Human Services, Higher Education, and Public Safety committees.

Carter gave up his state senate seat in 2014 to run for Congress after 22-year incumbent Jack Kingston announced he was running for the United States Senate. He finished first in the six-way Republican primary–the real contest in this heavily Republican district–with 36% of the vote, short of the 51% required for outright victory. He then defeated Bob Johnson in the runoff with 53% of the vote. In the general election, he defeated the Democratic nominee, Brian Reese, with 60.9% of the vote, carrying all but two counties in the district. In 2016, he was unopposed in both the primary and general elections, and received over 99% of the vote against a write-in candidate.

Carter was reelected in 2018, 2020, and 2022.

For the 119th Congress: